Scottsdale 5th Avenue Fine Art & Wine Festival
What a perfect weekend for an outdoor festival! Yesterday I stopped by the Scottsdale 5th Avenue Fine Art and Wine Festival in Downtown Scottsdale, Arizona and enjoyed some gorgeous weather and beautiful artwork.
Sometimes Arizona art shows tend toward a majority of Western and Southwestern themes, but the Thunderbirds Artists have been careful to include a nice variety of artwork for all tastes.
One of the booths that caught my eye was Phil Smith's from Deerfield, IL (photo above). Phil uses mixed-media photo collage methods to create beautifully unique and colorful pieces from photos of objects we see every day...a series of front doors in a similar color palate or a grouping of door knobs make for an unusual piece of art, yet help me to feel like it's very familiar, comfortable and welcoming.
I also stopped by to watch the plein-air techniques of Raleigh Kinney creating an original work before my eyes. Working in watercolor is a difficult task. The artist must use the paint sparingly and be decisive about each stroke in order to avoid over-working the piece and muddying the images. Raleigh did an amazing job of capturing the street scene with bright red umbrellas and folks relaxing in the sun as it presented itself in front of him. It was a joy to watch.
There's no better time to be in the Phoenix area than in the Spring! There's something to do all the time, with some type of festival or outdoor event celebrated nearly every weekend. This festival continues through Sunday so stop by and take a few hours to stroll around. The next festival hosted by the Thunderbirds will be the 12th Annual Carefree Fine Art & Wine Festival held March 2nd - 4th, where else but Carefree, AZ, which is a treat in itself. You won't want to miss it!
